Darkness Of The Night
by Nigel Yearning
Summary: A quiet night in Bright Falls turns chaotic as a police officer fights for his life. An Award-Winning Story.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was midnight in Bright Falls and Jack Dominican, a police officer, who had been in the police force for 7 years, was responding to a call. Frost from a recent winter storm covered the road he was driving on, his cruiser slipped around sharp turns. The 4-wheel drive mode did little to keep traction on the road. Nonetheless, he kept control as he turned to a gravel road that leads into nearby woods.

As he was responding to a call was a man who claims he had been attacked. The man sounded eerie and his voice heavy from fear and panic. He couldn't give much detail of what had happened, all he said was that something broke into his home and tried to attack him. The call was cut before he could identify himself and give further details, though he did manage to give his address.

The street happened to be within a wooded area, few outdoor lamps repel the darkness out here. When Jack turned on his flashing lights, a nearby trashcan exploded and a flock of ravens vanished into the night. They weren't tweeting, but more like loud screams like that of a banshee. The officer was undeterred from the irony, he kept on going towards the address. Jack knew this place well because he had a friend who lived around here. He moved away though, complaining about ghost haunting his house. What made him snap was the pentagram he discovered when changing out his carpet. His house was once used by witchcraft.

It just so happened that Jack's former friend's house was next door to the house of the caller; When Jack pulled up the first thing he noticed was a gaping maw where the front door used to be. A white F-150 pickup truck sat near it, its bumper crumpled from hitting something hard. Maybe that caused the hole, thought Jack. What seemed strange was that there was not a single light on inside the house. Jack soon feared the worse.

Jack parked his cruiser and got out, taking the keys with him. Just in case the intruder was still in the area, he wants to make sure that whoever broke in wouldn't get away in his vehicle. He pulled out his black Mag-LITE flashlight and turned it on. It gave off a powerful beam that could be clearly seen by the slight fog of the night. After focusing it to a single point, he headed inside the darkened house with his 9mm glock handgun drawn.

The place was trashed, as if someone had been in a fight or a wild animal such as a bear came in and wrecked the place. Jack noticed the tire marks on the wooden floor near the entrance and it seemed crazy that anyone would use a vehicle as a battering ram just to get into the house. He found the door in question tossed aside like a discarded toy, Jack observed that it wasn't even locked in the first place.

"Police!" he called out, "Is anyone here?"

"Help!" someone crooned, "Back here! I'm back here!"

Someone was alive, he sounded injured as he coughed loudly. "I'm hurt!" he pleaded, "I can't move; I need help!"

Jack heads to the back of the house, opposite of where the front door used to be. He saw a man in his early fifties lying helpless on the ground, the area around him stained in his own blood. He held up a hand as the officer shined the flashlight on the guy's face, "Are you okay?" asked Jack, "Are you hurt?"

"Several of my ribs are broken," said the man, "The nerves in my feet are tingling, I can barely feel them from the cold."

"What happened?" asked Jack.

"I was just coming back from working overtime at my job," said the man, "Everything was normal until I got to my front door, just when I was about to unlock the door I heard my truck's engine roar. I immediately assumed that it was being stolen, but it was strange since I had the key. I turned to see who was behind the wheel of the car and discovered there wasn't anybody; I panicked and tried my best to unlock the front door. I wasted precious time by dropping the keys and by the time I managed to get the door open my own pickup truck ran me over and shot me across the room. It then pulled back and I heard the engine shut off, nothing more after that."

"You're saying that your own truck ran you over?" asked Jack.

"Take a look at it," said the man, "The windows aren't broken and it was locked. Please sir, I need an ambulance."

"Okay," said Jack, "Just stay here, I'll be right back."

Jack rushed back to his squad car to radio for help, when he got there he saw the headlights of his vehicle explode, the bulbs in each headlight had burst spontaneously. He was stumped, but that's something to worry about later. Right now, he needed to call for an ambulance. Jack opened the car door and grabbed the microphone to his radio. "Dispatch come in!" he called into it.

No response.

"Dispatch come in, over!" he tried again.

No response.

At that moment, a loud mournful cry roared through the air. The earth shifted and the trees shuffled. A nearby tree toppled over as if it had been cut down by a logger.

"What the heck was that?" he asked himself.

Something erupted inside the darkened house, Jack can hear the man's blood-curdling scream as he heard something smash into something. The man was in trouble.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Hold on!" called out Jack, "I'm coming!"

Jack rushed back to the darkened house, cursing to himself upon the decision of leaving the man alone. When he got back inside, he saw the man gone, in its place was a message written in light-sensitive paint on the wall. It was revealed when Jack aimed his flashlight over it, it reads, _"In the light, you can hurt them."_

"What?" he asked, "Hurt what?"

He looked around and saw another mammoth-sized hole in the wall. Had the man gone through it? Jack didn't know exactly what had happened, nor did he knew how the man went through a wall like that. Something forced him through it, but through unnatural means. It fits the case of paranormal activity. The thought made him shiver.

Something stirred behind him. It was a voice but, it was speaking pure gibberish, unintelligible speech. Jack turned around and saw the man standing before him, holding an ax in his hands. He looked wrong. Shadows covered the man's body while distorting his features. Jack aimed his gun at him, aiming directly at the man's chest.

"Get back!" he warned, "I'll shoot."

The man ignored the warning and marched towards him, his ax held up high. Jack fired the gun at the man, ironically it bounced off of him without harm, only stunning him. He shrugged it off and continued marching towards Jack, he fired another shot, no effect this time either.

Jack aimed his flashlight at the man so he could get a better view of his face, the light made contact with the man and it began to burn him. Yellow sparks bounced off madly where the flashlight was concentrated, the burning sounded like a table saw trying to cut solid redwood. The noise was so loud that it pierced Jack's ears.

When Jack aimed the flashlight at the man's face, he held his arm up to shield his eyes from the light. His body flashed and the dark shadows that covered him were gone. He stepped back as he gripped his face. Stunned, Jack fired a shot into the man. Each direct hit gave off puffs of yellow light, a few more shots later the man burst into a yellow shower of fireworks as his body vanished.

Jack was terrified. It made no sense. The man's body became pure energy right after he killed him, he was still reeling from the fact that he tried to help the man and now the man tried to kill him. But it wasn't him anymore, Jack understood that, but what exactly happened to this man?

Jack aimed his flashlight back over to the wall, he glanced at the hidden message for a second before returning his attention to the spot where the man collapsed and died. "In the light, you can hurt them." he aid to himself.

First it was a buzz in Jack's ear, then it became a rumble, until finally the earth shook so much that Jack had to hang onto something to maintain his balance. Something roared again, Jack looked out the window and looked pass the woods where he saw the lights from the town. All the lights over there went off at the same time. He heard a car crashed and a dog yelp in pain as if it was struck by something hard.

Jack didn't want to spend another moment in the house, he must head back to the station and report what had happened. He rushed back outside to his squad car. He got inside and tried to start up the engine. The engine sputtered, and then the radiator exploded. The explosion shot the hood open and steam came pouring out of it, disabling the squad car.

Jack pounded his fist onto to the steering wheel in response, then the airbag deployed. He attacked his airbag in frustration until it was fully deflated. "What now?" he asked himself.

He looked over to his laptop and saw the screen was smashed. It was fine just a few minutes ago. Jack remembered he had it on when he came here. He quickly snapped out of his haze when a hatchet came flying out of the darkness and embedded itself into the center of his windshield.

Looking past the flashing lights of his cruiser and into the dark road ahead of him, Jack saw two human-shaped figures marching out of the darkness. They had shadows covering them and were armed with machetes. Jack reached to his siren controls and flipped the switch to his spotlights on. They shot a beam of light at the figures and caused the darkness protecting them to burn away.

Jack quickly got out and aimed his gun at them, they both charged after him, already tasting the kill.

He aimed his flashlight into their faces and stunned them, giving off yellow static light for only a brief second. Once stunned, he proceeded to burn the darkness off of them and gunned them both down as they tried to come after him a second time. Their bodies disappeared, just like the 911 caller. Even their weapons vanished, leaving no trace of their existence at all.

Jack turned back towards the other houses and saw that they were all darkened, the power must be out. Whatever was going on, it wasn't confined to this area, the entire town of Bright Falls must be affected.

He headed back to his cruiser and turned on the emergency lights before popping the trunk open. He shut the car door and headed to the trunk where he pulled out his shotgun. Jack equipped it with a tactical light and loaded the gun with shotgun ammo. Next he stuffed the remaining ammo into his pocket and shut the trunk door.

All set, he took a deep breath and heads down the road from where he came, having no idea what horror lies ahead for him in this eerie Bright Falls night.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

He maintained a steady walking pace, since the roads were still slippery from the ice that covers it. Once Jack was on stable ground to where his boots can grip, he began to jog until he stumbled back onto ice again. It was a slow process, but he managed to make progress.

The police station wasn't far from here, in fact he only had to make a couple of turns to get there. Getting there on foot however felt like forever and the weather conditions were not making things any better. Jack clutched his shotgun in his hand and the flashlight in the other, hoping he wouldn't have to use them.

Jack thought about his family and his two sons. They must be terrified from the blackout. From what had happened to the man and the fate of two other individuals, he hoped he wouldn't have to encounter anymore creatures in human form.

When he got to the edge of the road, he saw a utility truck parked at the end of it with no sign of the driver anywhere. There was a power pole toppled over the street. Its wires scattered everywhere. Jack carefully navigated his way around the wires, careful not to touch any of them. As he made it to the truck, he discovered it was a Bright Falls Power & Light power truck. The internal lights were lit and on the dashboard was a hand-held spotlight.

He turned off his flashlight and put it into its holder, "A better flashlight is what I need to fight the dark things I'm facing." he said to himself.

The truck was unlocked, Jack opened it and grabbed the spotlight on the dash, knocking Tootsie Rolls onto the floor in the process. He turned it on and it gave off a more powerful and thicker beam than his flashlight produced. Before he left, he heard someone running up behind him. His instincts caused him to jump out of the way as a huge mountain-man tried to chop him with an ax. The man only succeeded in plowing the ax into the frame of the utility truck.

Jack could see past the darkness covering the muscular beast that he was wearing a hard hat and an orange reflective jacket and pants. Jack figured that he must be the owner of the truck, but it doesn't seem that he was mad at the officer for intruding in his truck.

"Hitting a worker can result in a ten-thousand dollar fine and five years in prison!" the utility worker spoke, sounding like a demon.

The officer aimed the spotlight into the utility worker's face. It stunned the beast and knocked him back as Jack proceeded to burn the incredibly thick shadows of darkness off of him. When the utility worker recovered, he let out a roar before he came charging at Jack like a rhinoceros.

Jack moved out of the way in time as the utility worker ran past him, he tried to slow down but he slipped and fell onto the ice. It was ridiculous as Jack kept the beam trained on him as he tried to get up, by the time he managed to regain his footing the shadows were now completely gone. Three shots from Jack's shotgun killed the creature. After the utility worker vanished in a yellowish light-show Jack continued his way back towards the police station.

Looking down the main road, Jack saw that it was littered with vehicles. Power lines and trees were toppled over, many cars crashed onto the road. Jack couldn't see another living soul in sight. As he headed down the road past the wrecked vehicles and downed power lines, he wondered where everyone was. In reality he doesn't even want to know what had become of them. Since Jack didn't see any blood, he thought that was a good thing and assumed nobody besides the man he'd try to help got hurt.

When he was half-way there, Jack heard something stir. In disbelief, he saw a car shot through the air, heading straight towards him. Jack managed to jump out of the way as the car landed at the spot where he stood; He quickly got up and saw the car that tried to crush him. It was covered in thick shadows, like the people that tried to kill him. Jack aimed his flashlight at the vehicle, as it was burning away the shadows the car jumped and hovered mid-air.

It groaned and twitched madly for a moment before hurling itself at Jack again. He took cover beside another car as the poltergeist smashed itself into it. Jack aimed the spotlight at the possessed car again, it burst into light before vanishing without a trace.

More cars were suddenly overtaken by shadows, Jack ran down the road as the cars shifted and groaned, hurling themselves at him like children's toys. He turned around for a moment and saw one of the poltergeists being hurled at him. Jack jumped and used the ice to slide underneath a van as the car slammed into it. Jack slid to the other side of the van and quickly got up as it too was possessed by darkness.

It was mad and it wasn't just cars trying to come after him. Mailboxes, motorcycles, luggage on top of other cars, and even trash cans were possessed as all these poltergeists hurled themselves at Jack, wanting to bury him. He panted as he made it to the other end of the road but he could see the police station just around the corner.

He looked up in the night sky and saw dark shadows swirling around, heading in the same direction as the wind. With the poltergeists still on his tail, he had no time to stop and smell the roses. He kept running down the street. Luckily the road didn't have any ice on it. When he looked behind him, he could see more shadow men coming from behind. They ridiculously outnumbered him and there was no way he could fight them all.

Jack continued running but he was running out of breath as the monsters in human form threw wrenches, hatchets, machetes, and hunting knives at him awhile spitting out garbled words that don't make any sense. With sheer luck, Jack saw a generator hooked up to one of the street-lights. He remembered the message on the wall and had a hunch that the creatures won't harm him when bathed in light.

He rushed up to the generator and began to pull on its ignition cord, the forces of darkness closed in. "Come on!" he cursed, "Start!"

It was cold enough that the generator wouldn't start, but Jack keep trying as his life depended on that generator working. He tried it two, three, four times. Just when he tugged it a fifth time, he saw one of the creatures about to embed its ax into his forehead. That's when the generator roared to life. Since it was hooked up to the street-light it came on and bathed the officer in a safe-haven of light. The monster that tried to kill him with an ax burst into a million light fragments before vanishing. Jack saw the rest of them simply fade away into the darkness. The poltergeists that were chasing him quietly floated back to earth and become inert. He was now alone.

Jack took a moment to catch his breath in the light while listening to the drone of the generator. How convenient for someone to hook the generator into the street-light, like it was there for someone like him to use. He closed his eyes and tried to relinquish the memories of what he had been through in the last hour. Reality became a blur to him. Whatever was causing all this, must have taken out most of the town folks and made them its puppets.

He asked, "Why was this happening? How was it happening?"

There were so many questions that Jack wanna ask. He wasn't sure if anyone would answer them all. He looked back at the police station and saw that it was completely dark. The backup generators hadn't kicked on. Maybe there wasn't anyone in there at all.

"I'm going to go in there, start up the generators, and hang in there till morning," said Jack to himself, "I hope someone is there, waiting for me."

The light that was bathing him flickered as the generator sputtered. It had a blow out, shut itself down, and its light went dark. "Crap," he cursed to himself, "Just-"

He stopped himself and listen, he heard something coming up from behind him. He turned around and saw a ridiculous sight: A possessed bulldozer covered in the dark shadows.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Jack ran as the bulldozer was catching up to him. He walked backwards and kept the spotlight trained at it. The light picks away the darkness as it came closer. He ran 20 feet at a time and trained the light at the bulldozer, as it came too close for comfort. He ran away from the bulldozer and repeated the move.

When Jack reached the police station, he tried to open the front doors but they wouldn't budge. The doors were locked.

"Ernie!" he called out as he pounded on the door, "It's me, Jack, let me in!"

No one responded to Jack. He was pinned in, no where to go even though safety was a few feet away. Jack kept the spotlight trained at the bulldozer as it came even closer. The engine roared as it tried to pick up speed. Jack crossed his fingers as the bulldozer came just a couple of yards from him, then it burst into showers of stars. Jack could hear the engine die down as the bulldozer vanished completely, he blinked twice before placing his hand where the poltergeist had been, while seeing if it didn't became invisible.

When he didn't feel anything, he withdrew his hand and took a deep breath, "Whoa." he muttered.

When he leaned against the glass doors of the police station, the doors swung inwards. Jack managed to regain his balance just in time, "Wait a minute," said Jack, "The doors were locked."

He walked inside and shut the doors and locked him, "Hello?" he called out into the police station.

No one answered him, Jack walked to the office area of the police station with his flashlight leading the way. When he got there, he saw the office area trashed. There was blood splattered everywhere and bullet holes all over the walls. Whatever attacked the man had been here too

What stood out in this chaos, was a single desk that was sitting neatly in the middle of a room, with a table lamp was on. Jack could clearly see that it was running off of a UPS device. The lamp was illuminating something red on the desk that looked like a pen. He approached it and sat his shotgun on the desk before picking up the object, "A flare," he said, "Why?"

Something was knocked over behind him. Jack looked around him and saw seven creatures armed with bloodstained axes surrounding him. It was déjà vu, because the shadow people looked familiar. It took a moment for Jack to realize that it was his fellow co-workers, his brothers in law enforcement. They were enslaved by the malevolent force that had taken so many, and now they were after him.

"You have... the right... to remain silent!" roared one of the creatures in the police uniform, "Do you understand these rights?"

Just as the creatures were about to attack him, Jack twisted the flare and held it up like a torch. Its bright light burned away the darkness off the creatures as it caused them to back off. He dropped the flare onto the tile floor and grabbed his shotgun, once the shadows on some of the monsters were gone he opened fired at them and gunned them down.

One by one they burst into light fragments, just as the flare's light went out. A possessed being tried to clobber Jack with his ax but he dodged it with breakneck reflexes and stunned the creature with the spotlight, then gunned him down once its protective darkness was gone.

Another tried to throw a hatchet at him, Jack dodged it and the weapon wound up getting lodged into a nearby filing cabinet. He aimed his spotlight at the remaining creatures, removed their shrouds of darkness, then gunned them down one by one. They soon burst into static light and disappeared into nothingness.

Jack stood there in the middle of the room, staring at where the spotlight was shining. There was nothing there. Everybody was gone, all gone. He made his way over here all the while risking his life, expecting help from his fellow officers. Instead wound up attacked by them.

He looked at the spotlight in his hands for a moment, then headed to the custodian's room. When he got there, he looked around for the fuse box. Jack found it alright, but there was an ax embedded into it.

"So much for getting the generators started." he said as he looked around the corner and spotted the backup generators in question, sitting idle.

The ground began to vibrate again, with no time to lose Jack headed out of the custodian's room and to the nearby side entrance of the station. When he got out, unnatural shadows possessed the door and it locked itself. Down the road, Jack could see a tornado forming before him.

The tornado was pitch black and it grew to an enormous size as it picked up cars and debris, spinning them around in its column of air. It was coming straight for Jack. He tried to hold it off by aiming the spotlight at the tornado but it had no effect.

Jack dropped to the ground and scrambled backwards, attempting to crawl back into the police station, as the tornado of darkness closed-in on him. Everything became black as he tried to fight back. His flashlight and shotgun were ripped from his hands and tossed aside like trash. Exhausted, he let go as the unrelenting darkness engulfed him.


End file.
